KwanTeo Film Archive · Creator
Lan Canzhao
蓝灿昭Lan Canzhao is a filmmaker from Chifeng, a town in Chaozhou. As a director, writer and producer, he has returned to the children and changing village life of his hometown in films including A Summer's End Poem and Where the Sun Shines Bright.
About the Creator
Lan left Chaozhou to study film in Guangzhou and later returned to Chifeng with a crew to make A Bright Sunny Day. Spending time there again, he noticed the everyday presence of children and older residents in a village from which many working-age adults had left. That return became a point of departure for subsequent films.
A Bright Sunny Day, directed by He Yupeng, follows a young villager weighing whether to stay or leave; Lan contributed to its writing, production and editing. He then directed A Summer's End Poem, which turns a haircut into a moment of childhood change and won the International Jury's best short-film award in Berlinale's Generation Kplus programme. His feature Where the Sun Shines Bright, also filmed in Chifeng, follows young people growing up in the village and had its world premiere at the Moscow International Film Festival in April 2026.
His credits span several filmmaking roles, but the through-line of these works is more particular: leaving home, returning, and looking again at the lives of young people there.